Boom!

You see a tree. It sees you. It attracts you with subtle animated color patterns. When you approach it, it starts to change its colors and when you throw something in the bin attached to it, it goes ‘Boom!’ with a white flash. This is its way to put you in the spotlight and thank you for caring for the environment.

Boom! can be found at Almere’s train station, where it has been since 2017.

When I think of the way Studio koningHebing translated my pencil doodle into a full-blown tree I feel proud to have worked with Rob and Nick. The are such amazing craftsmen. Rob Hebing and Nick Koning invented and produced everything: procedural design, software, hardware and construction. An amazing feat!

They first created a processing script to generate multiple tree designs that follow rulesets borrowed from nature. The most interesting tree result was then further designed in 3D so as to be modularly constructed in metal and wood and able to withstand abuse by the audience. Inventing a LED canopy was a challenge but at a weekend BBQ they noticed the ‘channels’ in the neighbours polycarbonate roofing. So they used this durable and cost-efficient material to put the leds in. Then they created custom electronic hardware and custom software to be able to push their animations to pixels. Fun fact: the ‘pixelpusher’ needed a special adapter on which, as a thank you for our collaboration, they printed my name. If you open up the tree you can see it sitting there, doing its thing. Thank you guys! I feel honoured with our collaboration.